page_title: Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: Heather Moreton-abounader Photography
context_page_description: The Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse is a horse breed from the U.S. state of Kentucky. Developed as an all-around farm and riding horse in eastern Kentucky, it is related to the Tennessee Walking Horse and other gaited breeds. In 1989 the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association was formed, and in 2002, the subsidiary Spotted Mountain Horse Association was developed to register Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses with excessive white markings and pinto patterns. Conformation standards are the same for the two groups of horses, with the main difference being the color requirements. The KMSHA studbook is now closed to horses from unregistered parents, although it cross-registers with several other registries, while the SMHA studbook remains open.
context_section_description: Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses must stand above 11 hands (44 inches, 112 cm) high to be registered. Horses above this height are divided into two categories: Class A horses stand taller than 14.2 hands (58 inches, 147 cm), while Class B horses stand 11 to 14.1 hands (44 to 57 inches, 112 to 145 cm) high. Horses registered with the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association (KMSHA) may be found in all solid colors, with white markings allowed on the face, legs and small patches of the belly. Horses with excessive white, including "bald face" or full white faces, white above the knees or hocks, or showing pinto markings (including tobiano, overo and sabino) are instead registered with the Spotted Mountain Horse Association (SMHA), a subsidiary of the KMSHA. Solid colored foals of two SMHA-registered parents are usually registered with the SMHA, but solid-colored geldings of SMHA-registered parents may be registered with the KMSHA, though they cannot be dual registered.
  Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses are mid-sized horses, with a well-muscled and compact build. The breed has a flat facial profile, a mid-length, well-arched neck, a deep chest and well-sloped shoulders. They are known to be self-sufficient and easy keepers. To be registered, Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horses must demonstrate a "gentle temperament and willing disposition" to registry examiners.
  The breed exhibits a natural ambling gait, called the single-foot, which replaces the trot seen in a majority of horse breeds. Both gaits are an intermediate speed between a walk and a canter or gallop; ambling gaits are four-beat gaits, whereas the trot is a two-beat gait. The extra footfalls provide additional smoothness to a rider because the horse always has at least one foot on the ground. This minimizes movement of the horse's topline and removes the bounce of a two-beat gait, caused by a moment of suspension followed by the jolt of two feet hitting the ground as the horse shifts from one pair of legs to the other. The value of an intermediate speed is that the horse conserves energy. More than thirty horse breeds are "gaited," able to perform a four-beat ambling gait, and some can also trot.
caption: A palomino Saddle Horse
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